The Nova Project
by Spelonberry
Summary: Hoenn Epic continues with a foray into two very different regions. Brendan is being taken to the Mainland, while May is stuck in ravaged Hoenn. As the Resistance begun by Maxie grows stronger, will the Mainland have to stoop to using the very thing they swear against . . . Pokemon? ** PLEASE REVIEW and tell me if I should continue or not **


The night was quiet in Sinnoh, but it was quietest in Celestic town. The rustic hamlet had been built after a wide-area excavation had been undertaken in the rocky ground. The money and effort that had gone into blasting away rock strategically, level by level, was not to be wasted. Quaint houses stood in square ranks, on two different rocky terraces. Walls of rock enforced the set perimeter of the small town: walls which would be seen as cliffs from ground-level travellers of Route 210.

Celestic town would seem claustrophobic to some, understandably. Noise from above rarely filtered down into the depressed dwelling space carved into the earth. But there was a good reason for those who lived there to stay there. Old paintings and wall carvings had been left in the walls, depictions of powerful Pokemon. There were several caves and hideaways which must've been created by a previous population; not many children lived in Celestic, but seniors loved to spend an afternoon in the twinkling shade of one of these sites. In the center of Celestic was an ancient shrine that almost always cradled an eye-catching assortment of flowers, gifts and offerings.

Over the years, grass had grown over the earth which had once housed ancient secrets. But the ground still tingled with mystery to one of Celestic's younger inhabitants.

Saturday night and Cynthia had flown home from the League on her Staraptor. It was 10:00. She sat on the cool, long grass, her Roserade beside her, watching the narrowing of the strip of the uppermost rock walls still illuminated by the setting sun.

Perhaps if she were in Celestic all day and all night, she would grow tired of it. Perhaps not. Regardless, her job as Sinnoh's Champion occupied much of her time and made her hometown all the more fascinating whenever she returned for a brief respite. The air was not fresh as she sat, taking the time to just breathe, but instead tasted and smelled of the caves and the flowers. The old and the new. Cynthia loved the old. She loved the carvings of Dialga and Palkia on the northermost edge of the square-set town, she loved the idea that she lived where legends were gathered and preserved and restored.

When the sun set, Cynthia softly chanted her evening prayer, recalled Roserade after feeding it a Poffin, and retreated to her humble house she shared with her Grandma and little sister, although her sibling was away at trainer's school currently. The darkness of the quiet living room indicated her grandmother had gone to bed and so Cynthia tiptoed on the creaking wooden floor to her study. It was a rather small room, but Cynthia lit the four lamps ringing her workspace, illuminating walls crammed with shelved books, jarred artifacts and random pieces of seemingly unimportant stone and shale, ceiling-high. There were several parchments pasted to the ceiling rafters as well. The only thing high-tech in the room, besides several mechanical tools on the desk, was a box computer sitting rather forlorn in a corner.

Translating old documents wasn't interesting work to most, but to Cynthia it was a comforting task. She blew rubbings off the sheet she was working on and set up her interpreted manuscript, reading the two summarily to remind herself of where she was as she swept a black ribbon off the table and tied her long blonde hair back.

Just as she was about to set pen to paper, her computer screen lit up with a notification in her peripheral vision. She got up and clicked on the pop-up window. A pokemon had apparently been transferred to her. Hm. She ducked under the jut of shelf the computer sat on and scrabbled for the pokeball receptacle. She clicked Accept. A notice about Masterball protocol flashed. Who would send her a Masterball? What pokemon would warrant a Masterball? She had a Pokeball, Greatball and Ultraball in the receptacle already, as those were the most common pokeballs. Curiosity piqued, she rushed out of her study, upstairs to her room and unlocked the carved box she kept her only Masterball in. A theory was forming in her mind as she ran back, as quietly as she could, to her study. The lamp flames flickered as she scooted around the table and bent over in front of the computer. Whoever sent her the pokemon would have to have known that she had a Masterball, to receive it. And who knew that? A few of the gym leaders in Sinnoh, and whoever had been involved with transferring it from Devon to her. And Hoenn's Champion.

A gift from Steven? Her lips twitched in an unusual flicker of childish excitement. She twisted her charm bracelets around her wrist and then put the empty pokeball in the receptacle.

_Transfer OK._

Click.

She didn't remove the Masterball. No way was she risking releasing whatever might be inside. Instead she selected _Summary_ onscreen.

There was no name, only a number and a visual. #384…. It was a green wyvern-like pokemon. She scrolled down and read the stats, her lips parted. Kneeling back, she absent-mindedly chipped away at her black nail polish. There was no message from Steven along with the transfer, but the pokemon _had _come from Hoenn according to its number. It was massive. Thirteen feet in circumference. Fifty-two feet long. And . . . it wasn't registered with the Mainland.

Her first instinct was to panic. Was someone trying to frame her?

She pulled a much-thumbed copy of this year's Jinxed and flipped to the date. She had already highlighted the fortunes that went along with her birth year.

_A new threat is the only gate to return of enlightenment._

_This must be a good thing. _She turned the dully shining pokeball over in her hand. Return of enlightenment? Yes, her work had begun to feel methodical as of late, no new discoveries or revelations. So whatever this pokemon meant, it was important for her.

Whether or not it was Steven who had sent the mysterious pokemon, she pulled her Poketch out of the radiation-proof bag hanging on a peg and dialed his number.

The helicarrier carrying Brendan Mayer and the recalled soldiers had been in the air for around five hours and was nearing the Mainland.

"Helicarrier in channel two proceeding at stable speed," crackled from the pilot trio's berth at the wide globule of a windshield. Helicarriers traveled in electromagnetically designated airways called channels; they were simply too gigantic to alter course in the event of an eminent collision.

"They won't be happy," Pro's voice came in General Ari's ear. She liked the noise and focus of the spacious cockpit, sitting at the forefront of the helicarrier just behind the people keeping the aerial beast alive.

"The resistance leader is eliminated. If that's not enough, they'll be fine once they see what I've brought them," Ari answered, while typing up a mission report on her personal tablet. She didn't like the numerical statistics of how much of her army had survived.

"And what's that?"

"Someone who can do what the leader of the Resistance could do," she said. "And that is classified. Until I get there."

"Of course," Pro laughed. He had a barking laugh. Ari had suspicions that he didn't keep all the intelligence she regularly fed him bottled up inside, but if she was right, at least he never told the wrong people. "So you saw it up close? Is it for real, because, it's all in the science head's secret closet over here..."

"Oh yes, it's real. And if we can figure out how it started, we can iron out this resistance easily."

"Hm. But the leader is dead..."

"There's got to be more than just him and who I have on board. One, and I would say it's an anomaly, but..."

"I see. But you don't have any proof that there are others."

"It's just logic, Pro."

"Hm."

"Hm? Pro?"

"Nothing. You don't sound like yourself."

"Well, I haven't been deployed in a long time." She bit her lip.

"Yeah."

"You don't sound normal either."

"Maybe it's the comm lines. I'll see you in a couple."

"Yes, you too, Proton."

"My full name? Geez that's weird, Ariana-"

"Proton Escalve Erbe," Ariana pronounced.

"I give up," came a snort. A click and then silence in her ear.

Maximilian Landon Aurus.


End file.
